Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: T.A.H.I.T.I.

With Skye gut-shot by Ian Quinn at the end of last week's episode, Coulson rushes her to a S.H.I.E.L.D. medical centre in Switzerland.

However, when it becomes clear there is nothing they can do for her, he decides she needs to be flown to the base where he believes his "resurrection" took place. Only on the way there, Fitz and Simmons discover even that's a S.H.I.E.L.D. lie and follow a virtual paper trail to a top secret, non-S.H.I.E.L.D. facility known as the "Guest House".

In the meantime, S.H.I.E.L.D. has dispatched agents to relieve Coulson of his prisoner - Ian Quinn. But the two-man team, headed up by Coulson's old friend and Ward's mentor, John Garrett (the awesome Bill Paxton), instead side with Coulson and help him assault the Guest House.

Unfortunately, the Guest House is apparently deserted - and set to self-destruct when the two guards there are taken out - and so our heroes scramble to find a mysterious drug mentioned in Coulson's medical files: GH325.

After a patchy start, it really looks as though Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is finally coming into its own.

T.A.H.I.T.I. was another episode packed to the gills with great moments, even if the majority came towards the end of the story with the revelation of the source of GH325 (was that a dead Kree?) and the episode's denouement, which served as a prologue for next week's Asgardian-themed episode, that saw the arrival of Lorelei (Elena Satine) on Earth.

This really ramps things up a gear if Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to let the team start interacting with aliens - rather than just abandoned alien technology. It also makes the mystery around Coulson's resurrection interesting again; it's no longer just that S.H.I.E.L.D. operated on him to bring him back to life, it's where they got the knowledge to carry out such an operation.

meanwhile, the Deathlok programme got a mention - to keep that sub-plot bubbling under until his next appearance - and the Clairvoyant's plans (ie. why Glenn was told to shoot Skye) are also starting to make sense.

On the strength of these last three episodes, I really believe Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is shaping up to be the show we all hoped it would be.

Sure, we're still not going to see costumed superheroes every week (and it was rather unrealistic to think we would), but Coulson's crew - S.H.I.E.L.D.'s wild cards - are starting to gel and are tackling situations out of the realm of your typical spy-fi.

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